Saw-gin



(No Model.)

W. DEERING. SAW GIN.

No. 440,918. Patented Nov. 18,1890.

NITED STATES PATENT Orricni \VILLIAM DEERING, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

SAW-GIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,918, dated November 18, 1890.

Application filed April 21, 1890- Serial No. 348,874. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM DEERING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lo uisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented new and useful Improvements in Saw-Gins, of Whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the cotton-gin known under the generic name of the Whitney, and in particular to the mode of propelling the brush which by its revolution sweeps the lint from the saws into a lint-room or into a condenser.

I operate the brush by the new and useful means illustrated by and through the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an end view of a saw cotton-gin, showing the mode by which the brush under consideration is propelled in the Vhitney gin, and generally is still propelled. I introduce this figure to enable me to comply as clearly and succinctly as possible with Section 4,888 of the Revised Statutes in its demand that an applicantshall show his invention in its devices and mode or modes of operation as distinguishable from otherinventions for analogous or similar purposes. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same gin, illustrating a propelling of the brush by friction-pulleys by a method or arrangement which is as distinct from other modes of propelling it by friction yet introduced as a propulsion by frictiouis distinct from a propulsion by a belt. This will be explained hereinafter.

In each of the figures the same letters indicate the same parts.

A represents the end of the saw-shaft, and B the hitherward saw on said shaft. 0 represents the end of the brush-shaft, and D the hitherward end of said brush.

E represents thepulley on the saw-shaft used for a propelling of the brush through pulley F on the brush-shaft.

G in Fig. 1 represents a belt, which, leading from pulley E out to and around idlerpulley H, returns over pulley F and drives this pulley and the brush of which it is the propeller in the direction necessary to meet and strip the lint from the saws. That the saws may be kept free of lint by the suction of the brush, as well as by slight peripheral touches of the bristles, the brush must be given a revolution about four times the revolution of the saws, and as this greater speed is as constantly as imperatively necessary it follows that any slackness or slacking of the belt interferes with the speed of the brush, and as any such interference causes an instantaneous throwing of the lint from the saws to the floor underneath them the idlerpulley is in practice set in a small frame which can be for the moment loosened from the main frame and pressed downward until the belt is given thenecessary tautness, and when this is effected it is wedged or otherwise fastened again, as before. This belt is, as seen in the figure, avery short belt. Short belts are necessarily taut belts. Taut belts are severe on the journal-bearings of their pulleys, and also, and in the degree of their tension, call for a greater power to drive them. Thus it is, therefore, that this mode due labor on the mules, which usually run cotton-gins, as well as an undue heating and Wearing of the journal-boxes, while this undue labor and wearing are intensified by the necessary bending of the belt out of the cus tomary direction and at almost right angles up and over pulley F, as seen in Fig. 1.

Frequently, and from causes other than a lessening of the speed of the brush, lint drops or is thrown from the saws to the floor, and almost as frequently the cause of this is attributed to some imperfection in or slackening of the speed of the brush. In nearly every such case the gin-attendant grasps a handspike and pries the little frame with its pulley H downward until a tap on the belt sounds like a tap on a tightened drum-head, and this of course introduces a still more oppressive labor on the mules and a more dangerous heating of the journal-boxes, these evils frequently constraining four mules running a forty-saw gin to pull more laboriously than under normal conditions they would be called on if running a sixty-saw machine. This can be realized when it is known that a man of ordinary strength pressing a broomhandle longitudinally across the belt at the point indicated by the letter I or O in Fig. 1 can bring four ordinary farm mules to a stop,

and by continuinghis pressure can bar them from starting again Without a breaking of one or other part of their running-gear.

To provide some better mode of driving this brush has been a desideratum since the time of \Vhitney. In view of this inventors have worked on two distinct lines of improvement-one of cog-work and one of friction-pulleys. On either of these lines they have, however, thus far not been successful, the main cause of the final Withdrawal of efforts under the line first named being the noise of the gearing, and the main cause of the Withdrawal of efforts under the secondline being an at last assumed impossibility of setting aside as inconsequential an inevitable momentary or permanent parting asunder of the centers of the pulleys E and F, added to the finally-realized practical impossibility of making in ordinary gin-houses with ordinary attendants satisfactory read j ustments of the close impact which imperatively must be constantly preserved between these pulleys. Impressed by repeated personal experiences with the great importance of this desideratum', and knowing of these failures, I have devised a supporting of the brush-shaft at one or, if in practice found necessary, at each end by a hinged arm having a journal-box so arranged that if this box by wearing grows larger or the shaft-journal or the friction-pulleys by wearing grows less, or this shaft be momentarily pushed or jostled a little from the sawshaft, it will nevertheless be impossible for the pulleys to perceptibly lose that impact which, as I have said above, is constantly necessary.

' Looking at Fig. 2, it will be understood that but one end of the gin is shown, and that seen that I secure this hinged arm having the journal bearing by supporting the brushshaft on the arm R, hinged to the frame-work at a point which throws the Weight of the brush and its friction-pulley against the frictionally-driving pulley E on the saw-shaft A, and it will be seen also that this weight can in any suitable way be lessened or augmentethas in particular sizes or classes of gins may be necessary to secure a continuity of that impact, for

it is obvious that the Weight of the brushshaft can be increased or diminished either by adding to the volume of the journal-bearings or by changing the position of the pivot studs I, so as to give a greater obtuseness to the angle of the arms R, and by this greater 6o obtuseness a greater bearing down of the pul leyF against the pulley E. For this purpose the pivot-stud P is placed so as to bring the hinge of the arm R at-apointbelow the horizontal plane of and beyond the outer side of the brush-shaft to throw the weight of the brush and its friction-pulley against the frictionally-driving pulley on the saw-shaft.

Having described my means of running the brush of a saw cotton-gin by friction, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 15-4 V In a cotton-gin, the combination of the stri pping-brush, its shaft, and the friction-pulley thereon, the saws, their shaft, and the frictionpulley thereof, and the hinged arms having journal-boxes for the brush-shaft, the said arms being hinged at a point below the horizontal plane of and beyond the outer side of the said brush-shaft to throw the weight of MARY C. REXTER, WILLIAM LoTz. 

